In several U.S. states where local governments have taken up LGBTQ rights, the Catholic hierarchy is placing itself in opposition to equality. Today’s post features three related stories.
The Catholic Church in Scotland has urged Scottish Catholics to oppose a new national parliament bill designed to help transgender people transition genders more easily.
A gay singing group was disinvited, by direction from the bishop, from a Nativity event at a Massachusetts Catholic parish during this past holiday season.
On this feast day of The Holy Family, I want to shout to our Church leaders to review the viability of Church teaching when it comes to same-sex activity, to own at least partial responsibility for the hate and ignorance and pain that my son and countless others have had to overcome, and to examine whether this teaching is enhancing souls and is consistent with Jesus’ message of love and inclusiveness.
“Had it not been for what I consider the miraculous intervention of the Holy Father, I would have simply been another failed priestly statistic, chewed over by a no-longer serviceable canonical system.”
After their teacher was fired for being married to another woman, students at a Catholic school in Indianapolis formed a group to respond and push for a more inclusive church. Shelly Fitzgerald, a co-director of guidance at Roncalli High School, was “abruptly given an ultimatum and required to choose between her job as codirector of guidance or her same-sex marriage,” as reported by a new article in U.S. Catholic.
A transgender man is appealing a court decision that ruled in favor of a Catholic hospital which refused to administer a hysterectomy for his gender transition.
A priest thanks and affirms the work of a young gay Catholic man speaking out for justice in the church.
As the new school year starts here in Indianapolis, two Catholic high schools are missing key faculty and staff who were terminated this past year because of their same-gender marriages. A third Catholic school lives under sanctions by the local archbishop for refusing to discriminate. But in these unjust situations, I find there is a certain freedom and a hope coming forth, too.
Today’s post is from guest blogger Jason Steidl who reviews “Stumbling in Holiness,” a new book on sin and sanctity in the church by theologian Brian Flanagan, and shares its implications for LGBTQ and Ally Catholics.